Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964). Although many characters have taken up this identity, Norman Osborn is the original and most well-known Green Goblin. Originally an amoral industrialist head of Oscorp and father of Harry Osborn, he took a serum which enhanced his physical abilities (enhanced strength, mobility, stamina, & healing rate) and intellect but also drove him to insanity. He adopted a Halloween-themed appearance, dressing in a goblin costume, riding on a bat-shaped "Goblin Glider", and using an arsenal of high-tech weapons, notably grenade-like "Pumpkin Bombs", to terrorize New York City. He is one of Spider-Man's most persistent foes, and the archenemy of Spider-Man, being responsible for numerous tragedies in Spider-Man's life, such as Gwen Stacy's death and the Clone Saga by far the main villain for the whole Spider-Man mythos. However, he has also come into conflict with other superheroes in the Marvel Universe. He was also the focus of the company-wide Dark Reign story line as the main villain for the marvel universe as the original Iron Patriot. Biography The Green Goblin was born of an experimental formula created and used by scientist and industrialist Norman Osborn. The formula greatly enhanced his strength, speed, reflexes, and knowledge, but also slowly drove him insane. Using his newfound power, Osborn plotted to become a powerful crime lord by uniting all the smaller crime rings together. Wanting to get Spider-Man out of the way, he sent two supervillains, Headsman Headsman and Scorcher after the web-slinger, but they were defeated. Then Osborn decided to take matters into his own hands. He made a rubber suit and a Goblin_Glider bat-shaped glider equipped with many deadly weapons, including razor-bats, electric gloves, knockout gas, and his signature Pumpkin Bombs Pumpkin Bombs. Enlisting the help of the Enforcers, who had fought Spider-Man before, he went to Spider-Man and tricked him into acting in a movie with him about the web-head. At the set in New Mexico, the Goblin and the Enforcers battled Spidey, forcing him to flee to a nearby cave, which, unbeknown to any of them, was occupied by the Hulk. While Spider-Man was busy fending off the Jade Giant, the Goblin made his escape. Green Goblin later reappeared several times in attempts to deface Spider-Man and boost his reputation, despite always being connected to the crime ring. After all of these defeats, the Goblin became obsessed with destroying Spider-Man, and Osborn put all of his time into focusing on conquering the web-slinger. The Green Goblin unmasked? A turning point came when Green Goblin figured out a way to find out Spider-Man's identity. He made a special gas that nullified Spidey's spider-sense, and followed him without detection back to Peter Parker's house. He then easily captured Spider-Man and brought him to his lair, where he revealed himself as Norman Osborn. After making the mistake of untying Spider-Man so as to gloat and prove his superiority, Spidey fought and beat him by sending him into some electric wires that were covered in chemicals. Osborn lost all of his memory of the Goblin, and Spider-Man, satisfied with that, burned the Green Goblin costume. "Death" of the Green Goblin Norman's memories eventually returned somehow, and as the Green Goblin he kidnapped Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's love interest, and forced Spider-Man to battle him on a bridge. The Goblin then threw Gwen off the bridge, and Spider-Man, desperate to save her, shot his webbing down and grabbed her, but it was too late. The force of the webbing snapped Gwen's neck, and Peter brutally attacked the Goblin, nearly killing him. But Osborn had one last play to make, and he remote-controlled his glider to come up behind Spider-Man and attempted to impale him from behind. But Spidey's spider-sense warned him and he dodged out of the way. The glider blade instead was driven into the Green Goblin's middle, and he was seemingly killed. "After his "death", several other people took on his identity, including his son Harry, who become the Green Goblin II. Another goblin-themed villain, the Hobgoblin, was born after Roderick Kingsley stumbled upon one of Osborn's hidden Goblin lairs and took his basic weapon set, using a different costume and name. Norman Osborn's return He returned alive in the Clone Saga, after his resurrection due to a chemical in his goblin formula which regenerates fatal injuries he murdered a man who looked enough like him and placed him in his coffin, he then formulates a plan to get revenge on Peter Parker, he causes a series of problems for Spider-Man including hiring assassins to try and kill him, he hires a woman to poison Mary Jane who was pregnant at the time forcing her into labor and seemingly giving birth to a stillborn baby whom is later revealed to be alive, he also has Peter convinced that his clone Ben Reilly is the real Peter Parker, he also drugged Flash Thompson and caused him to get into an automobile accident giving him brain damage. After a series of events he eventually reveals himself to Spider-Man who is shocked that he's alive, they have a battle and like before he attempts to kill him once again with his goblin glider, Ben Reilly dives in front of him taking the hit and dying, in response Spider-Man hurls a web full of pumpkin bombs at him, seemingly killing him again. The Thunderbolts, the Dark Avengers, and the Dark X-Men Norman Osborn created several teams to take out several other superheroes. Some examples are the Thunderbolts, the Dark Avengers and the Dark X-Men. At one point he joined and became the leader of the Sinister Twelve. When he was the leader of the Dark Avengers, Osborn changed his costume and became an evil Iron Man/Captain America combination known as the Iron Patriot. Powers & Skills A marvelous businessman, corporate monger & a brilliant scientist by trade. After taking the OsCorp serum, his body was capable of quickly regenerating fatal wounds, enhanced muscle power & greater mobility, as well as advanced intellect & insanity. He also has a high-tech glider, high-tech Iron Patriot armor & high-tech weaponry. He has all of OsCorp's nigh-limitless funds & advanced technologies at his disposal. ''In Other Media'' ''Spider-Man The Animated Series'' Seasons 1 and 2 Norman Osborn is a recurring villain and the main antagonist of the Sins of Father Episodes in Spider-Man The Animated Series. He was voiced by Neil Ross. He is also the head of Oscorp. Norman Osborn appeared in the series from the start, but not as the Goblin. Osborn was indebted to the Kingpin for various shady loans that Osborn was unable to repay, so the Kingpin asked Osborn to kill Spider-Man to repay the loans. Osborn then hires Spencer Smythe to build Spider-Slayers to kill Spider-Man. After the plan fails, Osborn hires the Hobgoblin to kill Wilson Fisk. But the assassination is foiled by Peter Parker, and the Kingpin suspects a conspiracy against him. For his failure, Osborn fired the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin then joins with Kingpin and kidnaps Norman's son, Harry Osborn, for the crime boss. When Hobgoblin sees that Kingpin will not pay him immediately, he eventually betrays the Kingpin by going to Norman for better weapons to kill the Kingpin and Osborn can have his company and son. Osborn gives him a better glider and weapons and by the time the Hobgoblin returned to the Kingpin, Hobgoblin realizes that the Kingpin knows he was going to double-cross him, causes the Kingpin to flee, having the Hobgoblin think he died and took over his empire. The story concludes with the Kingpin, Osborn, and Spider-Man all loosely allying themselves to defeat the Hobgoblin, who escapes after crash-landing into the water. In the end, Osborn sells 50% of his company to the Kingpin in order to repay his debt, Harry Osborn is returned safely, and the Kingpin rebuilds his headquarters. Later on, in the two-part second season finale, Osborn refuses to grant loans to Adrian Toomes's projects because Toomes was too old and senile. Therefore, Toomes became the villain known as the Vulture in order to try to kill Osborn, but as usual, Spider-Man saves Osborn and defeats the Vulture. Seasons 3 and 4 Later in the episode, Enter the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn and his partner, Mendel Stromm, were coerced into creating a formula for the Kingpin that grants superhuman strength. An unstable reaction resulted during one experiment and Norman disappeared in the explosion, presumed dead. His son, Harry, blamed the Oscorp stockholders, J. Jonah Jameson, Anastasia Hardy, and Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin), among others, for the death of his father. Soon a mysterious airborne figure, identifying himself as the Green Goblin, began kidnapping the stockholders one by one. Spider-Man uncovered an underwater base where the Goblin intended to kill everyone he had kidnapped. Fighting the Goblin, Spider-Man unmasked him, only to discover that the Green Goblin was Norman Osborn, rather than the suspected identity of his son, Harry. Amnesia ensued and Norman was unable to remember his dual identity. The following morning at OsCorp, he announced that he will no longer build chemical weapons, much to the Kingpin's secret dismay. Osborn appeared as himself again in the episode The Ultimate Slayer at an engagement party for Harry, who was going to marry Mary Jane Watson. However, the party was crashed by Alistair Smythe, recreated as a cyborg under the Kingpin's machinations, and Smythe kidnapped Norman, his son and Mary Jane, bringing them back to the Kingpin's lair. There, the Kingpin reveals to Osborn that Spencer Smythe did not die in the explosion back in The Spider Slayer, but that he escaped early on before the explosion ensued at OsCorp and was met up by the Kingpin. But rather than killing him outright for his failure with the Spider Slayer's goal to kill Spider-Man, the Kingpin sees that he may still have some future use for Spencer, so he places him in chronological suspension. Spider-Man overhears this and tells this to Alistair, who turns on the Kingpin completely, destroys his lair and takes his chronologically-suspended father away with him, thus ending whatever relationship the Kingpin and Alistair had between each other. Spider-Man managed to have saved Norman, Harry and Mary Jane, but unfortunately for Harry, Mary Jane decided to call off her engagement with Harry to be with Peter Parker. In Goblin War!, Norman Osborn became the Green Goblin again after being threatened by the Kingpin that if he did not reveal the Hobgoblin's identity, who the crime boss was currently in league with, then Harry will suffer the consequences. In this episode, he and the Hobgoblin clash over Dr. Ohn's Time Dilation Accelerator, which was what the Hobgoblin possessed that lured the Kingpin into an alliance with him. Near the end, the Green Goblin tracks the Hobgoblin down to Jason Phillip Macandale's home, since the Goblin knew from prior knowledge as Norman Osborn that Macandale was actually the Hobgoblin. So he kidnaps Macandale and his fiance, Felicia Hardy, with the Time Dilation Accelerator, takes them to OsCorp and ties them up over a chemical vat to slowly lower them there to their doom. But Spider-Man arrives just in time for a brief fight with the Green Goblin, saves Macandale and Felicia and nearly destroys the Time Dilation Accelerator with one of the Goblin's weapons. But, seeing that there is still some power left in the Accelerator, the Goblin takes his chances into a portal, stating to Spider-Man beforehand that he'd rather be trapped in limbo than be defeated again by the superhero. However, at the end of the episode, the Goblin manages to make it back into his own dimension because the Accelerator had more power than either him or Spider-Man thought, and he starts to modifying the machine while plotting the downfall of his enemies like Spider-Man and the Kingpin (the Hobgoblin is now jailed at this point because of his identity of Jason Macandale now revealed). In the next episode Turning Point, the Green Goblin finds out Spider-Man's secret identity with the Time Dilation Accelerator. As Osborn, he nearly reveals Peter's identity as the superhero in front of everyone at Harry's birthday party, but when Peter catches on, he causes a fire that abruptly interrupts Osborn. Next, Spider-Man and the Green Goblin's ensuing fight goes from Osborn's home atop the George Washington Bridge. But at the Bridge, the Green Goblin uses the Accelerator again, implying that he will go to Peter's Aunt May's home to kill her. But by the time Spider-Man arrives, the Goblin appears and tells him that he decided to switch targets, implying that he is intending to kidnap Mary Jane. The Goblin succeeds in this task and takes her back to the George Washington Bridge, where he and Spider-Man have their final confrontation. And during the battle, both Mary Jane and the Time Dilation Accelerator fall over a ledge, and the machine is accidentally activated, creating a portal which MJ falls into. Neither Spider-Man or the Goblin know what happened, which makes Spider-Man assume that MJ possibly died and vows vengeance on the Green Goblin. The villain tries to escape using the Accelerator again, but finds that it is almost out of power. Nevertheless, he manages to reactivate it before Spider-Man could reach him, but accidentally creates an unstable portal that sucks anything in its path inside. Spider-Man initially tries to push the Goblin in, but he then realizes that vengeance will not bring Mary Jane back, so he tries to save the Goblin. But the villain activates his glider to attack Spider-Man from behind to push both of them into limbo. However, Spider-Man's spider sense tingles, warning him of the glider coming in, so he dodges it, and the glider hits the Green Goblin in the chest where the Time Dilation Accelerator is situated, thus destroying it and pushing the Goblin into limbo all by himself, where the unstable portal finally ceases to be. Though this is the last time Spider-Man and the Green Goblin would clash, this is not the end of Norman Osborn's saga. In the episode The Return of the Green Goblin, Norman, as the Goblin, contacts Harry through a spiritual link, saying that if Harry becomes the Green Goblin and kills Spider-Man, then he will see his father again. Harry hesitantly complies and, figuring out thanks to Norman that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, the new Green Goblin tries many times to kill Spider-Man while having the Punisher track them both down. Harry goes back to OsCorp for better weapons against Spider-Man and the Punisher, but Spider-Man arrives and tells Harry that his father is the Green Goblin, which the latter confirms, to Harry's shock. But Harry realizes that this is his family's legacy to be the Green Goblins, so he confronts Spider-Man and the Punisher again at the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man defeats Harry by tackling him into the river and destroying his glider, and Harry's unconscious form is taken by the Punisher back to Peter's house for interrogation as to Mary Jane's whereabouts. Later, after the clone of Mary Jane arrives to be mistaken by everyone to be the real MJ, Spider-Man takes Harry to Ravencroft Institute to cure him of his mental insanity as the Green Goblin and make him think his knowledge of Peter being Spider-Man as false. But in the fifth season premiere, The Wedding, when Harry hears that Peter and Mary Jane's clone are getting married, Norman contacts Harry again, inspriring him to escape Ravencroft and team up with Alistair Smythe, now under the employ of the Kingpin's enemy, Silvermane, to create Goblin Warriors, robot battle droids under Harry's command. He decides to use them at Peter and MJ's clone's wedding to kill Spider-Man so that Harry could marry MJ's clone, but the Goblin Warriors fail to kill Spider-Man, thanks to the help of the Black Cat and Smythe's Mega Slayer robot controlled by the Kingpin, and Mary Jane's friend Liz Allen tells Harry that she loves him. This makes Harry think that he's insane again, goes back from his plan on trying to marry MJ's clone and goes back to Ravencroft to be cured of his mental insanity for good. Norman Osborn appears again as Green Goblin in I Really, Really Hate Clones, the first part of two-part series finale, in which he was working for Spider-Carnage and the Kingpin in an alternate reality. This is simply a parallel version of the character in this other universe, as there was nothing that implied of the previous Norman Osborn. When the Green Goblin was confronting the Spider-Men from different realities who had joined forces to stop Spider-Carnage, all of them used their webbing to stick him to a floor of the Kingpin's tower. In the next episode, although he did not appear in it, the Green Goblin likely dies in an explosion that destroys the tower. ''Spider-Man The Movie (2002) In the first Spider-Man movie, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin is the main antagonist of the movie. He was portrayed by Willem Dafoe. Norman is portrayed as a strong-minded yet troubled head of Oscorp who has a distant relationship with his son Harry Osborn and a deep respect and admiration for Peter Parker. Osborn is threatened that he will lose a military contract should a super soldier formula he is working on not receive proper human testing, which will bankrupt and possibly even destroy his company. Desperate, Osborn tests the formula on himself, which drives him insane and transforms him into the Green Goblin. The Goblin is depicted as a separate personality from Osborn, "speaking" to him through a mirror in his home and acting as a sort of unhinged, psychotic enforcer for Norman's desires and interests, claiming that Norman is too weak to achieve them himself. The "Goblin", using the glider and armor designed with the super-soldier serum, kills the military contractors who threatened to pull out of their deal with Oscorp, and then kills Norman's board of directors when they attempt to sell the company and force him to resign. After forming a begrudging respect for Spider-Man, the Goblin attempts to persuade Spider-Man into joining forces. However, Spider-Man denies this request, resulting in the Goblin vowing to kill him. After he discovers Spider-Man is actually Peter, the Goblin decides to "attack his heart", injuring Aunt May and kidnapping Mary Jane Watson. During a final confrontation, the Goblin reveals his true identity, then in an attempt to kill Peter, accidentally impales himself with his own high-tech glider. Before dying, Norman tells Peter with his last breath: "Don't tell Harry," not wanting his son to realize the monster he had become. In grief and frustration, Harry later holds Spider-Man responsible for his father's death, not realizing Norman was the villain that had been terrorizing the city. ''Orlando At Dark Norman Osborn/Green Goblin is the leader of the Marvel Villains and a major antagonist in Orlando At Dark. Willem Dafoe reprises his role. 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